Two Oakland County moms charged with subjecting daughters to genital cutting

Millions of little girls and young women have been subjected to a painful rite of passage that involves cutting their genitals — often without anesthesia — for centuries in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Detroit Free Press

The federal government has amped up its female genital mutilation prosecution, charging two Oakland County mothers with subjecting their daughters to the banned religious cutting ritual that has now been linked to four Michigan girls.

This brings the total number of identified victims to six — two from Minnesota, four from Michigan. And the number of defendants charged in the historic case is now up to six, including two doctors, a physician's wife, two mothers and a sixth woman — all of them accused of participating in various degrees of subjecting young girls to genital cutting as part of a religious practice within their Indian Muslim sect.

The latest two defendants — both of them mothers and citizens of India who appeared in federal court Wednesday with their husbands — were released on bond by a federal judge Wednesday and ordered to wear tethers and surrender their Indian passports. The women have also been prohibited from talking to any of the alleged victims or witnesses in this case, except for their daughters, whom they are still allowed to live with.

The government had asked the judge to place both women on home detention and prohibit them from visiting their local mosque, arguing obstructive activity that sought to derail investigators in this case occurred at the mosque and could happen again.

U.S. District Judge Mona Majzoub denied the government's requests after defense lawyers argued the mothers need to tend to the busy lives of their children, who have many activities planned for this summer, including camp, swimming, reading and technology lessons. They also argued that the defendants should be allowed to attend their religious services. As defense attorney Margaret Raben argued on behalf of her client: "The mosque is her family."

Raben also described her client as being a proud member of the Dawoodi Bohra.

"That's what got them into trouble here," said Raben, who stood at the lecturn with her arm around her client's shoulder, patting her at times for comfort.

The women were charged with conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation and one count of female genital mutilation.

A third woman, Tahera Shafiq of Wayne County, has also been indicted in the case for allegedly being present during some of the cutting procedures.

The new defendants were added to the original indictment that was handed up in April charging Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, a now-fired emergency room physician at Henry Ford, with performing the procedure on two Minnesota girls at a Livonia clinic in February. The clinic owner and his wife, Dr. Fakuruddin Attar and Farida Attar, have also been charged.

All six defendants are members of the Dawoodi Bohra — a small Indian Muslim sect with a mosque in Farmington Hills that practices female circumcision and believes it is a religious rite of passage.

According to the superseding or new indictment unsealed Wednesday, four Michigan girls have now been identified as victims of this practice, which is illegal in the U.S. and has been condemned worldwide.

Among those victims are an Oakland County girl who was subjected to a genital cutting procedure on May 30, 2015, at the Burhani Medical Clinic in Livonia. Prosecutors allege her mother brought her to the clinic, where Nagarwala allegedly performed a genital cutting procedure on the girl. The clinic owner’s wife, Farida Attar, also was there.

The other indicted mother is accused of bringing her daughter to the same clinic for the same procedure last year, sometime between June and Sept. 20, 2016. According to the indictment, Nagarwala performed that procedure as well and the victim's mother lied to law enforcement when questioned about whether female genital mutilation procedures took place.

While the U.S. Attorneys office has identified six victims in the government’s ongoing female genital mutilation probe, it has claimed that as many as 100 Bohra girls may have been subjected to genital cutting over the last 12 years.

The defendants have denied any wrongdoing and maintain they were not involved in any cutting, but rather subjected the girls only to scraping procedures that they believe are a religious rite of passage.